Carbureter.



W. B. HIDDEN.

CARBURETER.

APPLICATION FILED MINE I5 1915.

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II| IIHN. IHHHIIIIIII ,IIJ l Patented Dec. 26, 1916.

T3 Fr'v rl-[11:11: EN ATTDS? Inn/LEN .WILLIAM E Z r NITED STAT -1 PATENT' WILLIAM B. HIDDEN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

GARBURETEB..

Specification of Letters Patent.

' rammen nee. ae, mie.

Application filed .Tune 15, 1915. Serial No. 34,537.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM B. HrbDEN,

a citizen of the United States, and resident of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and 5 State of Massachusetts, have invented' certain new and useful Improvements in Carbureters, of which the following is a specifi-v cation.

I This invention relates to carbureters, and Y im its purpose is to simplify the construction of .such devices and to direct the air current in such manner as'to insure ythe necessary evaporation of the hydrocarbon vapor. The evaporation of the hydrocarbon takes place,A

exclusively in a chamber in which a constant volume of liquid hydrocarbon is maintained in an inert condition. By inert Imean that it is not precipitated and that no atomization or other motion of the hydrocarbon Iliquid is required. The air current is guided Y and deflected by specially formed surfaces in the said chamber, whereby it is caused to swirl upon the surface of the liquid hydrocarbon, in this way being caused to absorb 2t the hydrocarbon vapor to such extent 'that a combustible vapor free from liquid atoms will be insured. f

Of the accompanying'drawings, which illustrate one-form in which the invention .may be embodied: Figure l represents a top plan View of a carbureter provided with a float valve arranged to control automatically the supply of liquid hydrocarbon. Fig. 2 represents a vertical section through the carbureter, as indicated byline 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 represents a Vertical crosssection inI the plane indicated by line l3--3 of Fig. 1.` Fig. 4 represents an end elevation of the,

right hand end, with reference to Figs. 1

and 2. Fig. 5 represents lan elevation projected from Fig. 1. The same reference characters indicate the same parts wherever they occur.

The casing 10 of the carbureter is divided to provide a supply chamber -11 and an evaporating chamber 12. Liquid hydrocar- -bon 13 is fed into the chamber 11 'and conducted from the latter to the chamber 12 through a passageway which includes a duct 14. and a tube 15, the latter extending upwardly a substantial distance from the bottom -of the chamber. The supply of liquid hydrocarbon enters the chamber 11 through a passageway 16, to which it may be conducted from a reservoir by a pipe, not

shown.

The feeding of liquid hydrocarbon 'into the chamber 11 is controlled by a valve 117 'i which is operated byv a float 18. The ful- Crum of the float is indicated at 19, andthe float lever which actuates the Valve is indicated at 20. The' purpose of thevalve and the float is to maintain a' constantvolume of liquid hydrocarbon in the chambers 11 and12; and so long as the valve/and float are arranged to operate in such manner, their form and details are optional.

Thepurpose in. arranging the tube 15 to project upwardly `rfrom the' bottom of the mlxing' chamber is to prevent the liquid hydrocarbon from running back byl gravity' into the supply chamber when the carburetor 1s tipped. I have" shown a body of absorbent material 21 in thebottom of the chamber 12.

One purpose of the element 21 is to minimize the splashing of the yliquid hydrocarbon.

For this purpose it is not necessary that the anti-splashing element have any absorptive capacity, although l prefer an absorbent element for the reasonl that it-will hold some of the liquid when the carbureter is inverted.

The shape of the evaporating chamber is I preferably cylindric, and it is so shown.

The axis of 'the chamber is vertical when the carbureter is in its normal position, as shown. This chamber has an air-inlet passageway 22, and an outlet passageway 23.

yThe walls of these passageways have pecuinternal combustion engine to which the car-l bureter is applied. l

Referring to Fig. 1, the current of air entering the inlet 22 will be deflected bythe surfaceJ 24V so that it `will be caused to flow circumferentially of the evaporating cham"y ber. Fora considerable portion, in the present instance slightly more than 180 degrees, of the circumference of the chamber,

the incoming current of airis inclosedi'n a4 duct 25 (see Figs. 2 and 3) which extends circumferentially along the inner side of the casing. The discharge end of the inlet duct is indicated at 26 in lligs. 1 and 3. This duct curves downwardly as shown by Figs. 3 and 5, in addition to extending circumferentially, thus directing the current of air according to the form of a helix.

The air, upon leaving the inlet duct, absorbs the hydrocarbon vapor in the chamber and is conducted from the latter to the outlet Q3 through a duct 27 whose receiving end is indicated at 28 in liigs. l and 5. rlhis duct also extends circumferentially upon the interior of the casing l0, and is of helical formation, as shown by Figs. 2, 3 and 5. The'desired absorption of the hydrocarbon vapor is promoted by the conjoint deflecting action of the circumferential. internal surface 29 of the casino' l0 and the helicoidal bottom surface 30 of the outlet duct, these two surfaces forming angle, as clearly shown by Figs. 2 and 8, into which the current of air is delivered by the inlet duct. The swirling action of the air in passing from theinlct duct to the outlet duct is continued by the surface 29, and, at the same time. the air current is del'iected downwardly by the surface 30. The effect lof the surface 3() is to precipitate the air against the surface of the liquid hydrocarbomand the air is thus forced to travel upon the surface of the liquid for a substantial distance, in the present instance approximately 180 degrees of the circumference of the chamber. The lower end of the surface 30 is relatively close to the surface of the liquid hydrocarbon, and the current of air in traversing the surface 30 is necessarily spread toward the axis of the cylinder so that a relatively great proportion of the air is brought into contact with the surface of the liquid. A substantial part of the area of the chamber is occupied by hydrocarbon vapor, and the latter is absorbed by the air which does not come into contact with the hydrocarbon liquid. y.

kUnder, all conditions, the swirling action caused by the circumferential surface 29 and the downward deflection caused by the surface 30y insures sufficient absorption of vapor. There is no spraying or atomizing of liquid hydrocarbon, and only the vapor of the hydrocarbon is carried 0H bythe current of air.

l have shown a throttle valve 3l arranged to control the inlet of air, and a throttle valve 32 arranged to control the flow of combustible mixture from the carbureter. rlhe provision or omission of these valves is optional, and their form is also optional. rlhe evaporating chamber has a cover 33, and the supply chamber has a cover 34:, the two chambers being thus closed with the exception of the inlets and outlets hereinbefore specified, and the carbureter is therefore especially adapted for use in aeroplanes, because it will operate in all positions, even though it be completely inverted. lWith special reference to its operation when inverted, the absorbent material 2l is desirable because it will retain by capillary action a sufficient quantity of liquid hydrocarbon in the path traversed by the air current to insure a continuation of the absorption of vapor by the air' until the aeroplane can be righted.

l claim:

A carbureter comprising an evaporating chamber having a substantially circular upstanding wall, means arranged to maintain a pool of liquid hydrocarbon in said chamber, an air inlet duct arranged to emit the air contiguous to and circumferentially of `said wall, and an outlet duct arranged to deflect downwardly the air emitted from said inlet duct.

In testimony whereof I have axed my signature.

WlLlllAM B. HIDDEN.v 

